Doctoral degrees: facts and figures

I recently came across the following infographic, and would love to share it with you!
The facts and figures are interesting to see, but I must say, that I'm not sure if you can make a distinction between "difficult" and "easy" PhD programs. Saying that a PhD in psychology is "easy" seems to be based more on perception than on data...


Source: Online-PhD-Programs.org

Learning from my Research Experience

Today I have the pleasure of hosting Vijay Thamarai who discusses his research journey, and what he learned to be crucial for carrying out research. Vijay is an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering department in SRM University, Chennai, India with research and design-professional interests in Finite Element Analysis, blast engineering, underground infrastructure and translucent concrete. He obtained his Master’s in Structural Engineering from SRM University, Chennai (2013) and Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering from Anna University, Chennai (2010). His research in blast analysis and design received recognition from Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in March 2011. Besides receiving a ‘Best Performance Award’ for academics in M.Tech program, he also received many awards for national level service in scouting. He has published journals on blast resistant design, outrigger frames and pushover analysis and a book titled ‘Modern Heliport Design'. He runs his own structural consultancy firm ‘Trustus Structural Consultancy’ and started an educational foundation for helping the needy and empowering poor people.

My experience in carrying out research began when I was consistently tried to explore different projects in which I can learn more about structural engineering (I decided to choose Structural engineering as my specialization in the second year of my undergraduate studies) and that fire my imagination. During my second year of undergrad I got a chance to watch a movie with my family members and there was a scene in which the heroine dies in a bomb blast. That triggered my desire to design the structures that are resistant against blast load. The very next day, I started collecting journals, books and other articles related to the blast resistant design of structures. I was so excited and started learning with a good level of confidence. My undergrad project and postgraduate thesis are on the analysis and design of blast resistant structures. These research experiences have strengthened my intellectual ability and leadership qualities. I have published several articles, few journals and a book as a postgraduate , which taught me how to effectively convey my thoughts and research to the community.

The topics of my research have varied in structural analysis and design, nonlinear static procedures, strengthening of reinforced concrete members and Translucent Concrete , and the breadth of these topics will facilitate my future research. The common objective I have with my research is to produce a positive impact in society. Before joining the postgraduate course I was working as an Assistant Engineer for Design in an architect firm at Chennai, India. The learning process during the postgraduate pulled my mind out from returning to a corporate office after the course and pushed me in the direction of research. I am currently working as an Assistant Professor in the department of Civil Engineering at SRM University, India (Sri Ramasamy Memorial). Still I am learning and working towards joining a Ph.D program. My thoughts are widespread with different problem statements, selection of universities and funding. So, I am now in a stage of exploring various Ph.D opportunities. Let me share something I learned during my past years of research.

First of all, there is no recipe for good research. Some students expect or hope to be provided with step-by-step instructions or guidelines on how to find or tackle problems. Research is all about thinking, thinking and thinking again. Never hesitate to throw your mind at anything. Before looking up a book or paper, before asking anyone, think. Never be lazy about thinking. That's how you build up understanding and develop a bag of useful techniques. Thinking is fun.

In a second step, you will work on the idea that functions as a benchmark for your research. You pick up how research is done by seeing examples and extrapolating. Attending conferences, reading journal papers, and discussions with your advisor or peers are great sources of research material. Learn how to write a paper by looking at other papers. Make analogies. When you see a new problem, ask yourself which questions were asked previously and use that to ask questions about your new problem. Don't be narrow or concentrate only on your particular problem. Learn things from all over your field, and beyond. The facts, methods, and insights from elsewhere will be much more useful than you might realize, possibly in your thesis, and most definitely afterwards. Being broad is a good way of learning to develop interesting questions.

The third point is understanding your research question. It is more important to understand deeply what you know than to know a lot. Successful research comes from having a good understanding, especially of the basics. When you read a research paper, ask yourself questions. Understanding means the ability to go beyond the immediate. It means knowing not just what the item in question is, but how it fits into a larger context, what are its variants, and what happens if you perturb it one way or another. I follow the quote, “Know something about everything and everything about something”. Knowing everything about something will empower you on the research part you have chosen and will lead you to reach milestones.

The fourth and most important point is ‘Time’. How people allocate research time varies enormously, not only from person to person, but, for a given person, from week to week or quarter to quarter. Some people work on an inspiration or deadline basis, sometimes putting in long hours, then doing nothing for a few days. Others maintain a steady schedule, coming to the lab at a certain time in the morning and leaving a certain time in the evening. Neither is right or wrong or better or worse; it is a question of finding what works best for you.
I always look for long-term productivity. A successful researcher should display some degree of productivity and progress over the course of a reasonably long period, like a summer, a quarter, or more typically, a year. This would include signs of increased understanding, confidence and maturity, and some visible output or deliverable, like a complete paper.

Self-confidence comes next to time as an important asset as a fifth element. Self-confidence affects our performance and success in all walks of life, from sports to socializing to dating. It plays a role in research too. Lack of self-confidence leads to disinclination of work. Fear of failure leads to inactivity. People freeze up because they are so worried they aren't good enough. If this sounds familiar, at least you know you are not alone. Increasing your self-confidence is very much a personal issue, but here are some reflections from my experience. You can find confidence only within yourself. Don't expect to get it from others. Someone telling you that you did well is useful to boost morale, but in the end you must believe in yourself.

If you are afraid of failure you will have a hard time succeeding. You have to fall a few times to learn to skate or ride a bicycle. Research is worse. Once you learn to ride a bicycle you don't fall again, but in research you never stop failing. Failures increase your understanding and maturity. If you find the process of research fun, failure to solve a problem is not daunting. In fact, it leads to all kinds of discoveries. You should feel proud, because you are a problem-solver. One nice thing about research is that nobody needs to know when you failed. You write papers only about your successes. But that is also deceptive, because you don't see the failures of others. But they are there. Even the top people don't always succeed. Gauss failed sometimes, as did Einstein.

PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: Selecting a PhD program and supervisor

This post is part of the series PhD Talk for AcademicTransfer: posts written for the Dutch academic career network AcademicTransfer, your go-to resource for all research positions in the Netherlands.

These posts are sponsored by AcademicTransfer, and tailored to those of you interested in pursuing a research position in the Netherlands.

If these posts raise your interest in working as a researcher in the Netherlands, even better - and feel free to fire away any questions you might have on this topic!

In our most recent post, we've looked at the benefit of your academic skills for finding employment after the PhD. Today, we take a step back in time, and look at the very beginning of your PhD adventure: finding a PhD program and supervisor.

The typical approach of finding a PhD program, is just by applying to a number of institutions, and seeing where you get accepted, with funding.

While getting into a program with funding is, in my opinion, one of the most important aspects of finding a PhD position, there are a number of other aspects to take into account as well. As a side note: almost all PhD positions in The Netherlands come with secured funding. In The Netherlands, a PhD student is considered an full-time employee of the university, with an OK salary, and social security. You won't got in debt over your PhD in The Netherlands, and you might even be able to save some good money if you live frugally. Besides the top-quality programs, this secure positions of PhD students could be one more reason to look for a PhD in The Netherlands.

Before zooming in to the aspects you should consider when selecting a program and supervisor, I'd like to share the two elements that made me pick my program and supervisor. The first factor that determined my choice, was interest. I wanted to do research on either buckling of concrete columns, or shear or torsion problems in reinforced concrete members. With that research interest in mind, I started to browse the pages of concrete research groups in various universities. I had given up on the idea of doing a PhD in the USA because of the crisis and the difficult funding situation (that was Fall 2008, and the confusion was complete). As such, my search was narrowed down to European universities. The second element that guided my search, was the reputation of the universities and their professors. I checked out the work of research groups of universities that I consider highly in Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and Sweden. Delft showed that they would start a large project on the remaining life capacity of concrete bridges, with shear as a mean topic, and that struck a chord immediately. Moreover, I was attracted by the reputation of the professor leading the research group. I sent an e-mail, then later sent my resume, and the rest is history.

Maybe I was extremely lucky to find a topic that really fit my research interest. Maybe the fact that I had a clearly defined research interest helped me find my position, which turned out to be a very positive experience.

Now that you know my story, let's look at a number of aspects to consider when selecting a PhD program and supervisor:

1. Your research interest

If you're going to spend 3 to 4 years of your life focused on one single topic, it'd better be a topic of your interest. Don't settle for a topic you are not interested in at all, just because you are getting funding. Don't settle for a topic that doesn't raise your enthusiasm just for getting a chance of putting "Dr." in front of your name.

2. Compatibility with supervisor

Before enrolling in a program, take a trip to your prospective institution to talk to your future supervisor in person. See if you share perspectives on your years as a doctoral candidate, see if you are on the same wavelength. While anything can happen along the road, such a discussion can give you an idea of how compatible your working style is with that of your supervisor.

3. Lab facilities

If you have an interest in experimental work, see what would be available to you when you'd join a given research group. Likewise, if you're more into numerical/analytical work, see what is available.

4. Learning opportunities

Every PhD is a learning journey. Inquire about the requirements with regard to technical courses, courses in which you train your soft skills, and more. Some PhD programs have a larger course load, some PhD programs are more research-oriented. Define what your learning needs are, and if these are in line with the opportunities at a given institution.

5. Post-PhD employment opportunities

Doing research for 3 to 4 years is lots of fun, but there's the truth of life after that too. Inform about the career paths of graduates from the program you are interested in. See if your prospective institution has good ties to the industry, which might give you more chances at finding employment after your PhD.

6. Location

If you are moving abroad for your PhD, consider the country and city you are moving to. Is it easy to find housing in that region? How high is the cost of living? What is the crime rate (aka is it OK to walk around with your laptop in your backpack?)?

7. Funding/Employment conditions

How is your research going to be paid? Will you be treated as a student on a scholarship, or a full-fledged employee of the institution with job security during a given amount of time and social security? Does your funding cover all years your PhD program is supposed to last?

8. Support for foreign students

If you are coming from abroad, inquire if the university is providing you with assistance for getting your visa, work permit, housing and all practical aspects of moving abroad. I can speak from experience that having to figure out all bureaucratic rules as a foreigner can be a long and confusing process...

9. Travel funding

What is the conference/field research travel policy of your prospective research group? Are you entitled to 1 international conference per year, or do you get to go wherever you feel like, as long as you write and present a paper? Is there funding to go and visit foreign labs? To participate in technical committees?

10. Research group

Last but not least, how is the atmosphere in the research group? Are people hanging out together for coffee breaks and lunch? Or do you feel that the cohesion in the group is rather small? Do you feel "at home" with those people, or do you think you'd be left alone?

These 10 aspects highlight different parts of your PhD research. From feeling well in your environment, to having the tools and resources to carry out your research, there are a number of topics to think of when you make your decision with regard to selecting a PhD program. Above all, trust your gut feeling: if you visit a research group, and your inner Big Nerd starts to get itchy fingers and shouts "Yes, yes, yes, this looks cool!", then go for it!

Effective Width in Shear of Reinforced Concrete Solid Slab Bridges under Wheel Loads

Just like last year, I've given a presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board. Last year, I wrote as well about navigating TRB for the first time, and how I enjoyed using the conference app.


Like last year, my presentation was in the section about Concrete Bridges. Here is the abstract of the corresponding paper, that is published in the Annual Compendium of Papers:

For the assessment of reinforced concrete slab bridges in the Netherlands, the shear stress resulting from the dead loads and live loads is determined in a spreadsheet or from a finite element model. In a spreadsheet-based approach, an assumption for the distribution of the loads from the wheel prints is necessary. When finite element methods are used, it is necessary to determine over which length (a multiple of the effective depth) the peak shear stress can be distributed for comparison to the design shear capacity.
To recommend a load-spreading method, experiments were executed on slab strips of increasing widths. The shear capacity did not increase with the increasing width upon passing a threshold. This threshold is compared to different load spreading methods, indicating that a distribution from the far side of the wheel print is to be preferred. This recommendation is also supported by the results of a statistical analysis and the stress distribution in nonlinear finite element models.
To find the distribution width in a finite element method, a numerical model is compared to an experiment on a slab subjected to a concentrated load in which the support consists of a line of 7 bearings equipped with load cells measuring the reaction forces. These measurements were compared to the stress profile at the support from the model, showing that the peak can be distributed over 4 times the effective depth.
These recommendations for the effective width and distribution width are research-based tools that replace the previously used rules of thumb resulting from engineering judgement.

Effective Width in Shear of Reinforced Concrete Solid Slab Bridges under Wheel Loads from Eva Lantsoght

Life After Graduate School: What happens next?

The topic of finding a job after the PhD, and life outside of the ivory tower has stirred reactions in a good number of people. Today, I have the pleasure of hosting Gemma Gaten, who gives her warnings and outlook for life after graduate school. Gemma is a literature major and works as a paper writer atuk.bestessays.com. She is a blogger, photographer, and traveler. She writes more about education, student lifestyle, writing, and careers. To know more about her please visit herblog and add her in google+.

People believe that obtaining a master's or a PhD degree is a good investment for a bright future. If you are a diploma-holder of a higher degree of education, there are more doors of opportunities that await you once you step off the portals of grad school. Having an advanced degree is a big advantage in almost all industries especially in the fields of education, social services, medical health, business management, etc. If you have a desired position in a professional field, you need to take an advanced degree. In our education and employment system, it is like you are required to get a higher degree of education to become qualified to the position that you want to attain.

Why you should go to graduate school and be a PhD candidate? Well, to put it simply here are the things that graduate school can give you. Graduate education will provide you the intellectual ability, work ethics, improved and advanced skills, in-depth knowledge, and well-related work experience to the field that you want to belong to in the future. As you know and learn these benefits, you became more driven to increase your career security, professional and personal development, right?

If you know and understand the positive aspects of getting into graduate school, you get excited to start a graduate education right away. But before you indulge yourself to the challenging and stressful life in grad school, there are things that you must know first. Life in graduate school is different from the life after grad school. What do I mean by that? Many students didn't know that the things that matter during their graduate education years don't matter anymore once they got their Master's or PhD diploma.

Let's say you have completed the years of your master's or PhD degree, you got your diploma, and you're done with all those academic paper works. As you bid goodbye to your alma mater, do you already know what awaits you in the real world? How are you going to face your new life? How are you going to address the transition after graduate school into the workforce? To give you a clearer perspective of what I am saying, here's a simple illustration.

THE EXPECTATION

Some graduate students thought that they don't need to work harder and exert much effort in searching for job opportunities since they already got a ticket, their PhD diploma, to get the job that they wanted. This can be possible for PhD graduates who already have a career while taking their master's or PhD education. But for those beginners or those students who do not have a job in their prospective field, they have to start looking for a job immediately that would best fit their skills and educational attainment. Because even though they are Master's or PhD degree-holders if there are no available positions for them in the market place or in non-academic careers, it would take a while before they land a full-time position. But for those in line with research and academic work, there are plenty of job opportunities that they can apply for.

THE HARSH REALITY

Even if you are a graduate student or a PhD candidate, you need to keep your options open. Whether it's a non-academic or academic work, you have to understand that the real world doesn't only look at the diploma that you are holding or the years that you've spent in the academy. There are already many students who pursued their graduate education and not all of them were given good academic jobs. Becoming a graduate from a prestigious graduate school is a good credential, actually being a certified Master's or PhD graduate is already a big accomplishment. But the sad part here is that the school you graduated from and the degree that you have don't matter anymore once you go to the workforce. Companies need your advanced knowledge and abilities so you have to show them what are the things that you can do for them because if they don't see you as a good contributor to the success of their business they will not going to hire you.

THE ACCEPTANCE

You have to accept the truth, real world is far different from the life that you had in graduate school. Whether you like it or not, you have to understand how the real world works. You will obtain the career that you want with the help of your good credentials, advanced education, and the professional network you have built. But the promotions, recognition, high salary, and good benefits that you will receive will depend on the contribution that you will make to the company.